Words · Meanings · Passages
Lexicon
Terms from the books in the Diotimos library, with definitions, translation notes, and links to their passages.
4,297 entries across 21 collectionsTerms beginning with A
1–36 of 233
A Square and the voice of the memoir
A Square is simultaneously a geometrical description, a social identity and the name offered as the book's author.
Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions
Abaris the Hyperborean
Abaris was a legendary Hyperborean, of the people the Greeks placed "beyond Boreas", the North Wind. Herodotus knew a story that he took an arrow round the whole earth without eating; later Pythagorean legend made him a priest of Apollo and a pupil of Pythagoras.
Charmides
Absence
Absence can name a continuing relation to someone no longer present, rather than the cancellation of that relation.
The Notebooks of Joseph Joubert, Volumes I–II
Absolute and relative
Absolute may mean complete or self-contained, while relative can mark a relation or dependence.
The Notebooks of Joseph Joubert, Volumes I–II
Abstinence from living things
Empsychos literally describes what has soul or life; apechomenos means abstaining.
Empedocles’ The Testimonia, Volume II
Abstraction
Abstrait is not interchangeable with métaphysique.
The Notebooks of Joseph Joubert, Volumes I–II
Abundance
Abundance is a fullness that exceeds a narrow allowance.
Centuries of Meditations
Abyss and volcano
An abîme is a gulf or profound opening, both a physical depth and a figure for an existence that cannot be filled.
René
Academy
The Academy is the place from which Socrates is walking.
Lysis
Accent and tone
Accent and ton can concern audible expression, literary bearing, or socially approved manner.
The Notebooks of Joseph Joubert, Volumes I–II
Acceptance and taking over
Ἀποδέχεσθαι is to take something from another with approval, to accept a statement or an argument; παραδέχεσθαι is to take over what another hands on.
Charmides
Accepting, custom, and what is accepted
Nomizein belongs to the family of nomos, “law” or “custom.”
Minos
Accident
Symbebēkos describes what belongs incidentally.
Stobaeus, Volume I · The Anatomy of Melancholy
Accident and substance
An accident may be a contingent occurrence or a nonessential feature; in philosophical argument it is distinguished from the substance in which a feature inheres.
Centuries of Meditations · Marsilio Ficino’s Platonic Theology, Volume I+1 book
Account and reckoning
To account something a good is to esteem or judge it such.
Centuries of Meditations
Acedia and weariness of life
Acedia enters as the monks' illness, beside the Latin Tædium vitæ, weariness of life.
Intimate Journals
Achaemenes
The ancestor from whom Socrates says the Persian kings descend, parallel to Heracles for the Spartans.
Alcibiades I
Acquiring
Ktaomai means acquire; get something for oneself.
Lysis
Acragas and the civic audience
Akragantos is the inflected name Acragas in the opening of B 112.
Empedocles’ Complete Fragments, Volume I · Empedocles’ The Testimonia, Volume II
Acron
Acron is the physician’s name; the Life exploits its similarity to Greek words for a summit or highest point.
Empedocles’ The Testimonia, Volume II
Action
Πράττειν is the ordinary Greek verb for doing, acting and carrying a thing through, and πρᾶξις a doing or an action; δρᾶν, another verb for doing, serves in the Charmides only to take up an activity already named.
Charmides · Stobaeus, Volume I+2 books
Action and activity
Action is an exercise of power; activity is its energetic employment.
Centuries of Meditations
Action and speech
Prattein means to do or act, legein to say or speak; diaprattesthai can emphasise accomplishing or perpetrating an act.
Alcibiades II · The Lovers
Action and undergoing
Ποιεῖν means to do or make; πάσχειν means to undergo, be affected or experience something.
Hipparchus
Active or productive
Poiētikos concerns producing or bringing something about.
Stobaeus, Volume I
Activity
Energeia concerns being at work or in operation.
Stobaeus, Volume I
Actuality
The term names a thing’s realized or completed condition.
Stobaeus, Volume I · Marsilio Ficino’s Platonic Theology, Volume I
Adam
Adam is the first human being in the Genesis narrative and, for Traherne, the exemplary first recipient of creation.
Centuries of Meditations
Adam and Eve
The first father is Adam, and Eve is the woman made from him in Genesis.
René
Addition
Prosthesis is addition or the addition of something to a subject.
Stobaeus, Volume I
Adequacy and deficiency
Ἱκανός is sufficient and, of a person, capable; the adverb ἱκανῶς is "enough". Ἐπιδεής and ἐνδεής are its opposites, "lacking".
Charmides · Lysis
Adequacy and precision
Ἱκανῶς means sufficiently, ἀκριβῶς precisely or exactly, and μετρίως moderately or adequately.
Alcibiades I
Adequate object
An adequate object fully answers the power directed towards it.
Centuries of Meditations · Marsilio Ficino’s Platonic Theology, Volume I
Admiration
Admiration is wondering contemplation of what exceeds an ordinary measure.
Centuries of Meditations
Admiration and contempt
Θαυμάζειν means to wonder at or admire; in the educational narrative it expresses admiring evaluation of someone’s wisdom.
Hipparchus
Adoration
Adoration is reverent worship, often embodied in lifted eyes, hands, and praise.
Centuries of Meditations
Books in the Lexicon
October 2026
Plato’s Alcibiades I Lexicon
Alcibiades I · Plato
176 entries · 701 subsidiary terms
October 2026
Plato’s Alcibiades II Lexicon
Alcibiades II · Plato
94 entries · 290 subsidiary terms
October 2026
Traherne Lexicon
Centuries of Meditations · Thomas Traherne
471 entries · 0 subsidiary terms
October 2026
Plato’s Charmides Lexicon
Charmides · Plato
173 entries · 777 subsidiary terms
October 2026
Empedocles Lexicon
Empedocles, Volumes I–II · Empedocles of Acragas
490 entries · 0 subsidiary terms
October 2026
Plato’s Epinomis Lexicon
Epinomis · Plato
77 entries · 1,061 subsidiary terms
October 2026
Flatland Literary Lexicon
Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions · Edwin A. Abbott
85 entries · 476 subsidiary terms
October 2026
Khunrath Lexicon
Heinrich Khunrath’s Magnesia Catholica Philosophorum · Heinrich Khunrath
326 entries · 0 subsidiary terms
October 2026
Plato’s Hipparchus Lexicon
Hipparchus · Plato
90 entries · 291 subsidiary terms
October 2026
Baudelaire Literary Lexicon
Intimate Journals · Charles Baudelaire
80 entries · 323 subsidiary terms
October 2026
Plato’s Lysis Lexicon
Lysis · Plato
239 entries · 0 subsidiary terms
October 2026
Ficino’s Platonic Theology, Volume I Lexicon
Marsilio Ficino’s Platonic Theology, Volume I · Marsilio Ficino
231 entries · 1,313 subsidiary terms
October 2026
Ficino’s Platonic Theology, Volume II Lexicon
Marsilio Ficino’s Platonic Theology, Volume II · Marsilio Ficino
148 entries · 1,398 subsidiary terms
October 2026
Plato’s Minos Lexicon
Minos · Plato
54 entries · 506 subsidiary terms
October 2026
René Literary Lexicon
René · François-René de Chateaubriand
81 entries · 275 subsidiary terms
October 2026
Stobaeus Lexicon
Stobaeus, Volume I · John Stobaeus
610 entries · 85 subsidiary terms
October 2026
Burton’s Anatomy of Melancholy Lexicon
The Anatomy of Melancholy · Robert Burton
103 entries · 3,864 subsidiary terms
October 2026
Guérin Lexicon
The Green Notebook · Maurice de Guérin
165 entries · 0 subsidiary terms
October 2026
Plato’s Lovers Lexicon
The Lovers · Plato
83 entries · 361 subsidiary terms
October 2026
Joubert Lexicon
The Notebooks of Joseph Joubert, Volumes I–II · Joseph Joubert
459 entries · 110 subsidiary terms
October 2026
Plato’s Theages Lexicon
Theages · Plato
62 entries · 510 subsidiary terms